Contactless Spin Switch Sensing by Chemo-Electric Gating of Graphene |
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Authors: | Erik P van Geest Khosrow Shakouri Wangyang Fu Vincent Robert Viorica Tudor Sylvestre Bonnet Grégory F Schneider |
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Affiliation: | 1. Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, Einsteinweg 55, 2333CC Leiden, The Netherlands;2. Laboratoire de Chimie Quantique, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, UMR 7177, 67081 Strasbourg, France |
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Abstract: | Direct electrical probing of molecular materials is often impaired by their insulating nature. Here, graphene is interfaced with single crystals of a molecular spin crossover complex, Fe(bapbpy)(NCS)2], to electrically detect phase transitions in the molecular crystal through the variation of graphene resistance. Contactless sensing is achieved by separating the crystal from graphene with an insulating polymer spacer. Next to mechanical effects, which influence the conductivity of the graphene sheet but can be minimized by using a thicker spacer, a Dirac point shift in graphene is observed experimentally upon spin crossover. As confirmed by computational modeling, this Dirac point shift is due to the phase-dependent electrostatic potential generated by the crystal inside the graphene sheet. This effect, named as chemo-electric gating, suggests that molecular materials may serve as substrates for designing graphene-based electronic devices. Chemo-electric gating, thus, opens up new possibilities to electrically probe chemical and physical processes in molecular materials in a contactless fashion, from a large distance, which can enhance their use in technological applications, for example, as sensors. |
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Keywords: | chemo-electric gating contactless sensing graphene molecular materials spin crossover |
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